Regents Postsecondary Education Regions
| CEO: | 10-01 |
| To: | Chief Executive Officers/Presidents of Institutions of Higher Education |
| From: | Joseph P. Frey, Deputy Commissioner of Office of Higher Education |
| Date: | March 4, 2009 |
| Subject: | Regents Postsecondary Education Regions |
Regents Postsecondary Education Regions  (556 KB) |
I am pleased to inform you that the Department has completed its update and revision
of the number and boundaries of the Regents Postsecondary Education Regions of the State. Last July, I had solicited your comments and advice on this matter and many of you responded.
A Regents Postsecondary Education Region is defined in the Commissioner’s Regulations
as “a geographic area of the State consisting of two or more contiguous counties that includes a
range of degree‐granting institutions offering, in the aggregate, curricula from the associate
degree through the doctoral level and having, in the aggregate, sufficient enrollment to form an
efficient educational planning group, and that is so designated by the Regents [§50.1(u)].” The
Department identified eight regions in 1972. Until now, their number and boundaries have not
been updated, despite the changes in higher education in New York over the past 38 years.
The Department is expanding the number of regions from eight to ten and aligning them
more closely with regional groupings used by New York State for other purposes, including
labor market analysis and economic development. The new regions are Western, Finger Lakes,
Southern Tier, Central, Mohawk Valley, North Country, Capital, Hudson Valley, New York City,
and Long Island. Maps of the former and new Regents Postsecondary Education Regions and
lists of degree‐granting institutions in each of the new regions are enclosed. Institutions that
have branch campuses in regions different from the one in which the main campus is located
appear in more than one regional list.
While the ten Regents Postsecondary Education Regions will be the “standard” regions
the Department uses for reporting purposes, we use the county as the basic unit of analysis and
tailor our reports to meet the needs of customers. For example, our reports of supply and
demand for teachers use the Department’s nine Joint Management Team regions, which are
aggregates of school districts.
We also will use the ten new Regents Postsecondary Education Regions in the review of
proposals that require Regents approval of master plan amendments. Regional canvasses will
reflect the new regional compositions. However, last fall, a few institutions asked that they be
associated with a region adjoining the one in which in they were located, for reasons of affinity.
We are happy to accommodate those requests and will make such adjustments when
canvassing institutions on proposed master plan amendments.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Enclosures see Regents Postsecondary Education Regions (556 KB)